


it didn't occur to me to mind

by nearlyhurricanes



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - 1960s, Getting Together, Inspired by Dirty Dancing (1987), M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:15:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29599536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nearlyhurricanes/pseuds/nearlyhurricanes
Summary: Dirty Dancing Newsies AU, because I love Dirty Dancing.
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly
Kudos: 2





	it didn't occur to me to mind

**Author's Note:**

> dirty dancing is one of my favorite movies and i realized the other day that a lot of the themes (sexuality, class conflict, coming of age, the inevitability of disappointing your parents) would make for a good AU! not every element of the story maps perfectly but this is honestly just an excuse for me to think about dirty dancing. title is from the opening lines of the movie!

David turned the last page of his book, sighed, and stuck his head out of the car window. Summer '63 was finally here. In some ways, it felt like he had been waiting to go off to college, the Peace Corps, and beyond his whole life, and now all that stood between him and his future was a bland summer in the Catskills. 

They were staying at Kellerman's--David's father was a doctor, and the owner of the resort was an old friend and former patient. It had been years since the family had taken a real vacation like this. As they pulled up to the big house on the mountain, David's sister Sarah started inspecting her bangs in a hand mirror. He snorted, and she glared back at him. "Butt out, baby." 

"Your hair's not an emergency, Sarah," their father intoned. Sarah rolled her eyes, and David smiled triumphantly. 

Meanwhile, Kellerman himself had come to welcome them. "Doctor Jacobs, as I live and breathe! I can't believe we finally convinced you to join us up here on the mountain. Three weeks here and you'll feel like a new man, I swear it!" 

As they talked, a boy around David's age started to unload their bags from the car. David made a move to help--out of some sense of responsibility, or maybe because he just felt awkward standing there watching someone else work, even David wasn't sure--but the boy smiled sort of grimly at him. "This is my job, man. Don't worry about it."

"I- oh. Right. Uh, I'm David," he offered lamely. 

The boy looked at David, almost like he was confused. "Okay. I'm Tony. Uh, have a nice stay." He clapped David on the back--harder than David expected--and kept unloading the car. 

David tuned back in to what Kellerman was saying to his parents. Something about a merengue class--he was gushing about the instructor, some woman who used to be a Rockette. David didn't know much about dancing, but even he knew that was impressive. And if he knew his parents--energetic, the type of people to wring the most out of every day even on vacation--he figrued they would be trying out those classes sooner or later, whether he wanted to or not.

\------------------

Okay. David was pretty sure he did not like merengue. Admittedly, the circumstances could have something to do with it--he got paired up with an old woman who was sweet and all, but not exactly someone he felt an urge to hold close. It didn't help that David doesn't actually swing that way, although he certainly doesn't have the nerve to ask a man to dance in a place like this. He can admit, though--the instructor was great. Katherine's attitude made him want to dance, or at least want to want to dance so he wouldn't have to disappoint her. She cracked jokes with his parents and kept the group's energy high, no matter how many toes were stepped on. And, of course, she was gorgeous. That much was obvious, even to David. It occurred to him that you probably had to be, for a gig like this. 

David kept thinking during dinner--about merengue, Katherine, the entire dance crew that had just started setting up when the class ended. Tony was hanging around with them. Those were the only two faces he even knew at this place. He faintly registered the waiter--Morris Delancey, currently attending Yale Medical School, according to Kellerman--flirting with Sarah, but nothing else. 

"Baby!" David's mother prodded him. "It's like you're on another planet! I was saying, you still have all this food on your plate. Aren't there starving children in Europe somewhere?"

David finally looked up. "Try Southeast Asia, Ma." 

"It's settled then," his father said, smiling. "Morris will wrap up his leftovers and send them to Southeast Asia."

"That's our baby, saving the world," his mother chimed in. 

Morris chuckled, a little uneasily. Sarah rolled her eyes. David just stared at his plate. 

Later, there was more dancing. Real dancing this time, not a class, and in a real ballroom. David hugged a wall--because what was the alternative, leading some nice girl on?--and watched the couples. Some married, like his parents. Some kids, even younger than him, and somehow far more sure of themselves. Maybe because they knew what was expected of them, and those guidelines felt like a shelter, not a cage. Or maybe they just hadn't lived long enough to learn that kind of uncertainty. David was certain about a lot of things--that his parents were good people, that he wanted to help make the world a better place, that his sister was a total pain but ultimately harmless--but social situations, and especially romantic ones, were another story. 

As David watched over the dance floor, the couples migrated to the edges as a new song began. Another couple whirled into the center of the room, and David recognized Katherine. The man must be her dancing partner, he realized, because no resort guest would be able to keep up with her quite so well. They were absolutely magnetic. David couldn't understand how the other couples had resumed their dancing on the perimeter of the dance floor, because it seemed impossible that a person could tear their eyes away from a show like this. And as beautiful and talented Katherine was, this man was clearly her equal. David didn't know whether to feel empowered by their grace and beauty, or awkward and shrinking in comparison. 

"Wow," he whispered. He turned to the nearest couple. "Who are they?"

"Those are the dance people," the woman told him. "Jack and Katherine. They sure are a pair, huh, sweetie?"

"They're here to sell dance lessons," her husband reminded her. "I don't know why they think they need to show off like that."

Mark that as another thing David's not so certain about. Because if dancing can look like _that_ , maybe lessons wouldn't be so bad.

**Author's Note:**

> please share thoughts! it's really interesting trying to turn a movie into a written narrative. some choices i've made to deviate from the movie so far: basically eliminating kellerman's grandson because he only exists to be set up with baby, and also i'm not having them call david "baby" as a nickname because i think that element of the story works a lot better for a female protagonist (esp re: lack of sexual agency). but peppering it in as more of an endearment/insult still works for me in this scenario? let me know what you think!


End file.
